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‘Who in tarnation ’ he began, then he had to concentrate on another detour round some roots.

But Georgina did not join in his curiosity, for by now she knew.

‘What is so attractive up there?' her stepsister had said over the telephone. ‘I’m coming up to find out what makes a feller like you tick.'

Now she had come as she said and probably found out a little already, and she undoubtedly intended to find out a lot more.

‘It’s Joanne,' Georgina said.

The
track was smooth now, so Larry Roper could drive and regard at the same time. He regarded Joanne, then let out an appreciative whistle.

‘I say, Brown, she’s really something! No wonder you didn’t want her up here. Sly devil, aren’t you—all that “Stay away” was only against us, against the men, and you were thinking of yourself. You didn’t fancy the competition.’

Georgina shook her head. ‘You’re wrong. I didn’t and I don’t want Joanne here.’

‘But she has still come, hasn’t she? For all your innocent expression you really must understand girls, Brown; something I confess I’ve never done.’

‘What do you mean?’

‘You’ve played hard to get, George, and done it very successfully. “Don’t come, Joanne” in your case meant “Come at once”.’

‘She’s my stepsister.’ Georgina had almost said: ‘We’re stepsisters.’

‘Stick to your story, Brown,’ Larry Roper grinned.

‘We have different names,’ she said, and he laughed.

‘Of course. I’ve never thought of you as Joanne.’

‘Different
sur
names,’ she said stubbornly, ‘Joanne is a Miss Sutherland.’

‘Very interesting. Is that why you chose Iain Sutherland for your study?’

‘Not
the
reason. It’s a common name after all.’

‘For an uncommonly beautiful girl.’ They were coming nearer to the verandah and the slender figure in flame.

‘Look, George,’ Roper spoke more sympathetically, ‘there’s no need for you to keep up this stepsister act.’

‘She
is
my stepsister! ’

Roper ignored Georgina’s interruption. ‘Also, there’s no need to pretend you don’t want her, even if you’ve worked out that it’s a good strategy to get her here.’

‘Sir, I ’

He ignored her protest. ‘Be yourself, son, be honest and go after her. Because I can tell you this, if you don’t, and at once, half a dozen of our stalwarts will.’

‘Including yourself?’

‘Led by me, I’m never included. Surely you have gathered that by now,’ Roper said arrogantly. ‘A girl like that,’ he added, ‘deserves the best.’

‘Which you are?’

‘I’m the boss,’ he pointed out.

‘Yes, but ’ Georgina stopped herself in time from retorting: ‘But a boss doesn’t have to be the best.’

‘You were saying, Brown?’ drawled Roper.

‘Nothing, sir.’ Which was true. All at once Georgina felt nothing. She knew it was all over, all the silly pretence; she had read that doomed men go through agonies, but she just felt numb. She felt quite neutral. She thought of that moment in the bush when she had wished she could be Georgina, not George, but now that she was to be Georgina again there was no excitement, only a desolation. It was because Joanne, beautiful, vital Joanne, was waiting on the verandah. There would be
two
girls, and very soon Larry Roper would know that. He would look at the lovely butterfly that was Joanne, then the brown moth that was Georgina.

Well, and Georgina bit her lip at the thought, at least I hope it gives him a laugh.

They were pulling up. Joanne was coming down to meet them. Thank goodness they never had been kissing sisters ... stepsisters ... though it couldn’t matter now.

Then

‘Greetings, George,’ said Joanne. She smiled and held out her hand.

Georgina, absolutely dumbfounded, simply stood.

‘Well now, Brown,’ reproached Roper, ‘you could be more spontaneous in your response. That’s what I really call a nice gesture.’ He bowed to Joanne. ‘After the indifferent way you’ve spoken about this charming young lady, for her to turn her other cheek as she’s doing now just has to be applauded.’ Another bow. ‘And such a cheek, if I may be so impertinent, Miss Sutherland.’

‘If that’s meant as a compliment ’ said Joanne archly.

'It is.’

‘Then I love compliments.’ Joanne showed her little white teeth in a sweet smile for Roper alone. He acknowledged it by going across and taking her hand in his.

‘You’re very welcome, Joanne. May I say Joanne?’

‘Oh, please, Mr Roper.’

‘Larry. All right, George, are you turned to stone? Action, man, begin to unload.’

Shakingly, disbelievingly, Georgina obeyed.

As she carried their rock spoil into a room off the verandah that Roper had fixed up as a laboratory, Georgina knew that Joanne was watching her; probably with that amused, faintly contemptuous look she always adopted with Georgina, but she dared not look back to find out.

She was not deceived by Joanne’s casual greeting, though, and that handshake had been a false one. She’s playing with me, Georgina squirmed, she’s doing a cat-and-mouse. When it pleases her she will spring the fact of my sex, and she and Roper will have a wonderful laugh together.

But evidently the laugh was not to be heard yet. Once, when Georgina dropped one of the rocks they had brought back for testing and Joanne picked it up, making quite an effort of it in spite of the fact that she was really as strong as a horse and it was not a heavy stone, she came behind her stepsister into the lab with it, saying in a helpful, little-girl voice: ‘You dropped this, George.’

Georgina, glancing around and seeing Roper crossing to his men’s quarters, said quickly: ‘You can drop the pretence, Joanne. He’s not here.’

‘She
might be, that gorgon of a housekeeper.’

‘Willy is a wonderful woman,’ rejoined Georgina.

‘I felt she didn’t take to me,’ Joanne shrugged.

‘Well, that doesn’t matter, does it?’ said Georgina. ‘It’s the men taking to you that matters.’

‘Correction, dear George, man. One man. The big boss. I think that’s why your Willy was cool to me. It appears she has successfully done away with three previous contenders.’

‘Four.’

‘There were only three photos in the lounge.’

‘But there was a fourth contender.’

Joanne shrugged again. ‘Well, it seems she’s handled them and doesn’t care about starting on me. Is that why you’re acting the man?’

‘Of course not.’

‘Well, it could look like that, and I’m telling you now, George, if you’re doing all this with—well, with somet
h
i
n
g in view, I wouldn’t care about it, either.’

‘What do you mean?’ Georgina inquired hoarsely. ‘Simple, I love your Larry Roper. I loved him the minute I saw this wonderful estate. The man must be a near-millionaire. Sly, aren’t you, George? You couldn’t get in here as a girl—oh, yes, I know the real reason, Bill told me that only a male employee would be acceptable—so you did a change-over trick from woman to man. Rather easy for a feller like you. Really, you’re browner and thinner and drier and more up and down than you ever were.’

‘A good foil for you.’

‘Perhaps, but I’m still not going to risk trying it,’ Joanne said calmly.

‘Trying it?’

‘Trying you as a female against me. Men can be such fools. Most of them go for looks, but not all. The very fact that you’ve been masquerading successfully possibly could attract Larry Roper ... he seems a different type from the usual run of males ... and I just can’t take the chance of any other attraction. Not just now.'

‘You mean ’

‘I mean, George, that you’re remaining
George.
I decided as I came down that very long drive and found this very big house that it would be better that way. Well—until I say so. In other words I won’t be giving you away. Not yet.’

Georgina swallowed. ‘But it’s sure to be found out. You’d forget and tell it to the world.’

‘Me?' smiled Joanne pityingly, and that was true, remembered Georgina. Unless she had wanted to, Joanne had never burst out with anything.

'You won’t like it here,’ Georgina said.

'It will amuse me,’ continued Joanne.

‘The hut is very meagre.’

‘What hut? Oh, where you sleep! Mrs Willmott said you had a bush retreat.’

‘Yes, and there’s no luxuries. No power, no bath. No ’

‘But, foolish boy, I won’t be there.’

‘Won’t be ?’

‘I’ll be up here, of course, as befits a young lady. Already I have my own room.’ Joanne smiled.

‘But ’

‘I couldn’t be with you, anyway, George dear. You may be my step, but you’re the wrong sex, remember? Even in remote country places, the middle of nowhere like this, convention matters, and I hardly think a stepsister and a stepbrother sharing the same four walls would be quite the thing.’

‘But Joanne '

‘Look, Georgina,’ now the teasing had gone out of Joanne and only angry intent remained, ‘you got yourself into this, so in you stay. That I have happened along, and that I find it all to my liking, is purely coincidental.
You
started it, so—so—wallow in it. Ah, there’s Mr Roper now.

Even without his other advantages he’s all right, isn’t he? But I forgot, you don’t think like that—you’re a man, too. Oh, Larry,’ Joanne raised her voice, and she had a high, trilling voice, not at all like Georgina’s deep tone, ‘your lab is simply marvellous! Will you explain it to me one day?’ He grinned. ‘No day like today. No time like the present ... that is if you can bear to be near a man who hasn’t changed his clothes for almost a week.’

‘You smell minty to me, kind of herby. You smell manly,’ Joanne said in her slightly breathless manner. ‘I love it.’

‘Then it’s on your shoulders. While I’m showing your stepsister round, Brown, you can have first go at the bathroom. Down at the hut, Joanne, there’s no bath, so we’ve
both
been looking forward to a hot tub. I’ll have Willy get some clobber from one of the smaller blokes for you, George. Or perhaps Joanne can help out with a pair of slacks and an overshirt. Not your cup of tea, son, but at least a clean change.’

‘No,’ said Georgina in agony.

‘Don’t wonder at your reluctance,’ sympathised Roper, ‘but no one will see you. Can you help, Joanne?’

‘Of course. I’ve some corduroys, and I’ve even included some very male-looking shirts. Tabs and military pockets and very, very masculine,’ Joanne trilled in that appealing little-girl voice she could adopt. Her small white teeth showed a smile again. ‘You know, Larry,’ she said confidentially, ‘we took the same size growing up. George was never a big boy—he isn’t now—and I always envied him his short brown hair. So handy when bathing. I had these wretched long golden curls ...’ Joanne’s voice was fading away as she moved beside Larry Roper down the verandah to fetch the clothes.

Georgina lost no opportunity. She had been longing for a bath; in fact the thought of hot water all around her had been tantalising her for hours, but now she gave it no second thought. The basin it would be, in the privacy and seclusion of her retreat in the bush.

She waited until they turned into the hall, then she left the lab, left the verandah and the homestead, then began racing down the track.

When she got to the hut she propped a chair against the door, after which she lit the Primus and put on the biggest saucepan of water she could fit over the flame. It would not be the same as a deep bath with endless hot water to top the bath up as it cooled, but at least she was away from the house.

Up there where probably they were now standing on the verandah with the clothes and laughing about her. Then, the subject of George exhausted, looking at each other and not laughing.

Just looking.

After she had bathed, Georgina dressed in clean clothes and waited. She had no doubt that someone would be down to take her up for dinner, or if that didn’t happen one of Mrs Willmott’s wonderful hampers would arrive. After all, she had lived on brisket for a week.

So Georgina sat on the doorstep and waited.

She watched the sun pass over to the west, turning the rocks into slabs of violet; she saw the evening star prick out. Why, it’s night, she realised, and no one has come.

She was so indignant she decided to refuse whatever was offered when it did arrive. She would go to bed and not answer the door when either someone came down to fetch her or to leave some fresh food. She would put out the light and pretend sleep.

She went inside and was in her pyjamas and under the rug within minutes, and there she lay and listened ... listened until it finally came to Georgina that there was nothing to listen to, that at—she looked at her watch— yes, that at half-past nine at night there was going to be nobody and nothing. A great wave of self-pity rushed over her. She felt hot tears pricking down her cheeks.

She lay there until hunger got her up. She went to the fridge and ate something not very appetising, she could not have said what it was, and she ate standing up. Then she went back to bed.

She tried not to think of the house. Dinner by candlelight would be over now; Larry would be entertaining Joanne in the lounge, probably, since she was obviously a feminine girl, playing records. Romantic records. Mrs Willmott would be leaving only the soft wall lights on, getting up and saying: ‘If I can be excused.’

What then? Georgina lay there fuming. What then up there, while she, who had worked so hard, lay alone and unnourished down here?

Suddenly unable to stay quiet any more, Georgina got up and dressed sketchily. She took the torch and went out of the hut and up the track. She had no idea of what she intended doing or even whether she had any intention at all. She simply stumbled on. At the first sight of the lights of the homestead, she thought vaguely, I’ll stop. Then I’ll come back. If there are no house lights on I’ll—I’ll